Yet Another Warlock Nerf

Is it my imagination or is Blizzard just trying to come up with more reasons to grind honor?
This baby will cost us 40,000 honor points for a whooping amount of 25 resilience. Another must-have for serious PvPers, but again, that's going to be a boring grind again just like Battlemaster.
I'm guessing the trinket will be changed soon and require a personal rating of 2000.

> New Medallion

The new Season 4 items will have the below personal and team arena rating requirements:

Shoulders: 2200
Weapon: 2050
Head: 1700
Chest: 1600
Legs: 1550
Gloves: none
Off-hand: none

In addition, some of the Season 4 quality items that will be purchasable with honor will also carry a personal and team arena rating requirement:

Boots: 1700
Ring: 1650
Bracers: 1575
Belt: none
Necklace: none
Trinket: none

No more 10 games per week and getting all the gear. No more playing specs for fun (destruction warlocks, balance druids for example). No more boosting friends or selling points.

Getting to 2200 rating for the shoulders is a hard task, I'm not even sure I can get that high. I can't help to wonder, what will happen to all those stuck at 1500 rating or less. Sure, they suck at PvP, but even if they're getting 300ish points per week, they'll be able to get some decent gear with the current system. This change might completely kick the fun part of arena combat and make it elitist only. Even those at 1500 rating invested their time and good will.

Some players are very happy about this change, mostly the ones at 2000+ rating. Sure, you know how to play and you deserved your items, but you didn't get that far just because you had the gear.
You can give full S3 gear to some random scrub and he'll be stuck at 1500 rating, regardless of class (ok rogues might get 1600).

I've played a good part of this season with some close friends, most of them poorly equipped and skilled. But I helped them get some points and learn a few things, and it was fun. We usually got together after arenas and discuss about it (read: me laughing at them). But the point is, it's more fun to play with people you know then some random guys who you've never met.
One of them is a shadowpriest, and it's common knowledge they perform poorly in arenas. He'd probably do much better specced discipline, but he has no healing gear and doesn't want to healbot people.

Let's take a look at some random player who likes doing arenas from time to time. We'll call him Mr. B. Mr. B is a hunter usually found in SSC or TK. He likes killing big monsters with 24 other people, trying out new things like PvP specs, and playing battlegrounds every now and then. Mr. B doesn't have the best gear, nor a whole lotta resilience. But he's got decent ratings and always learns something new.
With his ratings, he won't be able to buy any weapons, head, shoulders, boots, and maybe even rings next season. I really hope he gets better, but if he doesn't play more, he'll be stuck at that rating forever, and won't get many season 4 items. Mr. B is very good at killing those monsters in raids, yet he understands PvP is another game and requires a different mindset. If someone magically gave him all the PvP items, I doubt he would reach 2200 rating anytime soon.

Why would you deny items to a fine lookin' hunter like Mr. B? He's doing ten times better in arenas then most other hunter (or any other class for that matter) bloggers out there and I'd say he's a very happy dwarf. Let Mr. B buy whatever item he wants.

S4 Rating Requirements

Proximo is an arena unit frame which will display your enemies health and mana bars, allow you to target them, and a number of additional goodies. If you missed my review of Proximo, I suggest you do it now.

It's recently been updated to include some new features: race icons, buff & debuff tracking (I still recommend Afflicted for that task), and additional mouse button bindings.

The addon is pretty customizable, so you can choose whether you want to display class/race icons, mana bars, debuffs.

Like its predecessor, you can configure it outside arenas by typing /proximo test. The window can then be moved with ALT-click, and additional options are available by clicking your right mouse button.

Note that the talent inspect feature has been removed, but that's only because Blizzard disabled that particular feature with patch 2.4. Other than that, all old features are present (macros, announcements, focus, all that kind of thing).

Although a number of other similar addons exist (Arena Unit Frames etc.), Proximo is still the king and it's popularity is growing.


Get Proximo 2: Curse.com, WoWInterface.com, WoWAce

Previous addons: Reslack, Afflicted, Proximo, Advanced Tradeskill Window, Posessions, Doublewide & Lightheaded, Auctioneer

> Addons: Proximo 2

First, they added PvP cloaks which you can buy for 60 Badges of Justice (BoJ). Then there's items like Hex Shrunken Head, Warglaives of Azzinoth, Berserkers Call and many more which are far better for PvP then some Shankers or Slicers. Tidewalker in SSC drops this ring which is pretty good actually; here's one from Hydross. I wish I could get Seal of Danzalar for my warlock, the armor bonus would be awesome.

Battlemaster's Cruelty (and other versions) can be bought for BoJ as well as honor. Karazhan and Zul'Aman bosses are now dropping Badges of Justice, and after patch 2.4 you'll get them in 25-mans as well. In fact, all the new PvP stuff in 2.4 can be obtained via PvE, even the welfare epics.

I got Jewelcrafting on my lock, and there's no way to get the best gems without going to Hyjal, except buying them for hundreds of gold a piece from the auction house.
I unlearned herbalism on my druid recently and leveled up enchanting. Having extra 40 healing on rings feels good, and in PvP every bit helps. I can't earn much money with it since I don't have access to most of the formulas people need, like Mongoose, Sunfire, Executioner and many others.

You don't need any attunement to enter battlegrounds, thus every scrub can go PvP anytime they want. Sooner or later, you will get some good items even if you only play an hour or two daily. All those hunters with season 1 gear in battlegrounds are pissing me off; most of them aren't capable of doing anything except autoshot, yet still they manage to do insane amounts of damage and kills. I don't remember the last time alliance had less than 4 hunters in EoTS.

I always thought of battlegrounds as some sort of training grounds, where you learn stuff, where dying doesn't matter much like in raids, a place not just for farming honor to get better items but also to better yourself and gain some skill. If you farmed your Season 1 items mostly AFK, and you wonder why you can't pass 1500 rating in arenas, that's why. You suck, stick to your PvE.

You can AFK in battlegrounds and get honor. You can't AFK in raids and get items. Until Blizzard decides to kick players out, it won't be any different. I didn't hear about anyone getting banned for AFK-ing yet, and even if it's happening, I don't care. I'm in the battleground NOW, and I want those three or ten who are AFK kicked out because we're outnumbered and I want to win.

Now, MMO-Champion reports you will be able to buy Season 1 gladiator items for Tier 4 tokens, Season 2 for Tier 5 and 6 tokens. With T6 tokens from Sunwell you will be able to buy Season 3 gear. How cool is that! No, it's not fucking cool, it's sad.

I like doing battlegrounds and arenas. Sure, it can be frustrating sometimes, but raiding can be as well. Where's my PvE gear for honor? Why can't I buy those damn enchanting recipes with honor?
I don't know about you, but in Wrath of the PvE King I'll be raiding.

> Sorry mate, you have to PvE

Mind Vision druids if you know they are about to stealth as you will then be able to still see them when they do.

I didn't know that.

There's a bunch of cool tips about fighting certain classes on Dwarf Priest. Although it's from a priest perspective, it doesn't make it less useful and you should check it out.

Thanks to Kestrel's Aerie for pointing it out!

> PvP tips from a dwarf? Never

It doesn't look like patch 2.4 will change much about class (im)balance, but there are some interesting changes so far. Looks like we'll be doing the same thing again: farm reputation, Badges of Justice, and honor.
Here's what awaits those of us on the frontlines.

New PvP cloaks, this time with spell haste:


Battlemaster's Alacrity is a new BM trinket, again with spell haste:



This head enchant might be useful for those with poor PvP gear and lack of stamina and resilience:


New battleground repeatable quest (you can complete this as many times you want per day, but you'll get the gold only once):




And here's some new welfare gear for you scrubs:

Druid
Dragonhide Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Increases your movement speed by 15% while in Bear, Cat, or Travel Form. Only active outdoors.

Kodohide Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Increases your movement speed by 15% while in Bear, Cat, or Travel Form. Only active outdoors.

Wyrmhide Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Increases your movement speed by 15% while in Bear, Cat, or Travel Form. Only active outdoors.

Hunter
Stalker’s Chain Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the cooldown of your Concussive Shot by 1 sec.

Mage
Evoker’s Silk Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the cooldown of your Blink spell by 2 sec.

Paladin
Crusader’s Ornamented Battledgear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 10 sec.

Crusader’s Scaled Battledgear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 10 sec.

Priest
Mooncloth Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the duration of the Weakened Soul effect caused by your Power Word: Shield by 2 sec.

Satin Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the duration of the Weakened Soul effect caused by your Power Word: Shield by 2 sec.

Rogue
Opportunist’s Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the cooldown of your Gouge ability by 1 sec.

Shaman
Seer’s Linked Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the cooldown of your Stormstrike ability by 1 sec.

Seer’s Mail Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Improves your chance to get a critical strike with all Shock spells by 2%.

Seer’s Ringmail Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the cooldown of your Nature’s Swiftness ability by 24 sec.

Warlock
Dreadweave Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the casting time of your Fear spell by 0.2 sec.

Warrior
Savage Plate Battlegear
- 2 pieces: +35 Resilience Rating.
- 4 pieces: Reduces the cooldown of your Intercept ability by 5 sec.

New enchant, Deathfrost. I'll leave the math to others but it looks interesting for PvP:

Credits to Mmo-champion and WoR.

> Patch 2.4 - PvP additions

Afflicted is a PvP timer mod, which shows you enemy silences, interrupts and buffs in a convenient way. Although the name of this mod might suggest it's for warlocks, rest assured it's not.

You can download Afflicted on wowinterface.com!

Other addons: Reslack, Afflicted, Proximo, Advanced Tradeskill Window, Posessions, Doublewide & Lightheaded, Auctioneer

> Addons: Afflicted

Or so they say.


The ez-mode SL/SL spec is, despite all nerfs, still the most popular build for PvP warlocks.
There's not much room for having fun in arenas - you either play seriously or stick to PvE, so it's a real gem to find warlocks who manage to achieve high ratings with non-demonology spec.
While affliction still has its bright moments, destruction is now usually considered obsolete, mostly since resilience is introduced which severely gimped the previous popularity of this build.

Heidiheinken achieved what most players dream of - almost 2400 rating, which is really amazing for a destro lock.
First few minutes in this vid will show you how to beat warrior and druid combo, which is currently the most popular in 2v2, as a SL/SL lock teamed with a druid. It has come excellent tips & tricks which you should always keep in mind. I'd love to see more of it, but can't blame the author since the movie is about destruction.

If you're interested, be sure to check out the video to see how this forgotten build is still alive and kicking.

> Destruction is dead

I read the post over at PvP Source yesterday, about Vindicator's Dragonhide Bracers being better than Vindicator Leather Bracers, and it just so happens I bought my Vengeful Gladiator's Felweave Cowl yesterday also and noticed a similar thing.

So here's the problem.

Normally, destro items (Felweave, with crit chance) have less spell damage than Dreadweave, but that's not the case with this piece, so you might want to think twice before you buy your Season 3 head. 5 more spell damage and 1% crit over some pointless stats? Yes please.

By the way, who the heck designed this?


> Felweave or Dreadweave

PvP Source released a cool new toy today, called Arena Matrix.

It's pretty low on info right now but it should soon be full of great tips and guides on how to beat your opponents easier.
Arena Matrix has (or will have) info about 1v1 duels, but also arena setups: 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5.

It will be interesting to see how this tool develops further.
If you're a warlock you don't need anything other than the good old faceroll, but you still might want to check it out, or even submit your own strategy.

> PvP Matrix

We can all agree the afk reporting feature in 2.2 patch didn't help much - in the first few days after the patch hit everyone was eager to report people and it did help a bit. If nothing else, I felt like I could finally do something about the afkers except live with it. You can't spend half of the time checking the map and see who's inactive and who is not, and even if you did report them, they just got in combat to remove the debuff and kept on afking. There's been a lot of requests and suggestions on how to further improve it (such as kicking players out of battlegrounds), but up until now Blizzard probably didn't know what to do.
Finally, it seems they got tired themselves and announced the following:

In our continued efforts to support fair gameplay in World of Warcraft and to provide a positive experience for players, we are currently taking steps to ensure fair and enjoyable competition in the Battlegrounds. Starting immediately, we will be issuing warnings and penalties, including suspensions and the removal of Honor points and recently acquired Honor rewards, for non-participation in Battleground games.

So, issuing warnings and penalties eh? That doesn't sound so bad now - it's certainly more than I expected. I guess it will be again very forgiving, your account won't be suspended for doing it a few times, but those who constantly abuse the system will sooner or later be caught.

It's nothing special really, but I've figured this out awhile back. If I'm too lazy to do battlegrounds, I just don't do it no matter how much I need the honor. Or if I'm too lazy to fight, I just defend. Standing still on farm in Arathi Basin doesn't take much effort, and killing some random hunter or rogue from time to time who tries to take the node ain't that difficult.
That way, I can watch TV but still contribute in the game.

I'm glad Blizzard finally did something serious about this issue. I doubt this will really end the leeching in battlegrounds, but it sure will help.
But I wouldn't mind if inactive players got kicked from the BG as well. *hint*

> Thou shall be banned

Updated to Proximo 2!

Proximo is an enemy unit frame specifically designed for arenas. It will show your enemies when you or your other team members mouseover them, so you can see who you're fighting with as soon as the match starts.

The frame will show only when you enter an arena so you don't have to worry about it in instances or whatever.
The size and position is customizable (/proximo for commands; or hold alt and click on the window to move it) so it will fit in any UI.

Proximo can also announce low health, new enemy, player death etc. via party chat or raid warnings. It supports some macros but you won't have to worry about it at first.

Not only is this addon useful, it's also mandatory. Whether you're serious about playing arenas or you just want your 10 games per week, you will get used to Proximo pretty fast.

You can see the full list of features and download it at: curse.com, wowinterface.com, or wowui.incgamers.com. Or get the latest version from Wowace.

Other addons:
Proximo 2, Reslack, Afflicted, Proximo, Advanced Tradeskill Window, Posessions, Doublewide & Lightheaded, Auctioneer

Warlocks have a lot of tricks, and while they might not always require much skill to play (talking about SL/SL mostly), there's always things which separate skilled players over casual ones.
Perhaps you know all of this already, perhaps you don't. But it's always good to have an open mind and a few uncommon tactics so you can adapt to almost any situation.
I'm like Athene of the warlocks, giving away free tips. Read on to find out what hides in the warlock's trick bag!

1. I'll get this out of the way: use macros. There's plenty of them to be found, and a good place to start is my Useful warlock macros post.

2. I'll get this out of the way also since it's related to one of my previous posts. Get the Felguard Legionnaire. Enslave Demon is not completely useless - you can check this topic to see a list of cool demons which can be enslaved.

3. In PvP, always buff yourself with Detect Invisibility and Unending Breath. It's 2 more magic effects, meaning it might take 1 more priest's dispel or shaman purge to get your Fel Armor off of you. And those pesky Arcane Shot spamming huntards need to spam even more!

4. In PvE, you can break Fear on mobs by casting Curse of Recklesness (CoR) on them - use rank 1 CoR, it won't do much threat nor waste much mana, and the attack power bonus is negligible. When the mob is coming back at you, just throw another curse and he will run in fear again without the need to recast it.

5. If you send your pet to attack a rogue (or druid), even if he stealths the pet will attack him and break his stealth.

6. If you're using Succubus to CC in instances, pull with Searing Pain (or Soul Fire) for max threat. This is especially important for heroic instances: if your succy gets attacked it will probably get one shotted; if the mob goes after you it will give your pet enough time to reseduce the mob.

7. You can keep players in combat in arenas by sending your pet after them - they won't be able to drink. Also, if you didn't know, Star's Tears is the only drink you can use in arenas. Buy a stack, you never know.

8. You can banish druids in Tree of Life.

9. Always have your Felhunter's Paranoia buff on. There's no reason not to, and a lot of invisible reasons why you should.

10. You can summon yourself with Ritual of Summoning. Helps also if you get stuck behind objects in instances (happened to me in Shadow Labs on first boss when he feared).

11. You can Devour paladin's Hammer of Justice. Obvious, but often overlooked.

12. Spend 1 talent point in Shadow Embrace (affliction) if you can - it's one more magic debuff on your target - one more cleanse/dispel.

13. Use your felhunter to dispel Unstable Affliction on you - he won't take damage.

14. Banishing a warlock's pet will get rid of his Soul Link.

15. Get Boar's Speed.

16. You can cast curses on mages - some of them are retarded (sorry but it's true).

17. Spam Rank 1 Corruption to get that paladin OOM faster! Also spam it when the rogue pops Cloak of Shadows - it might stick on him and break his vanish.

16. Cast Siphon Life on hunter's pet - free healing ftw. Also, you can either cast Curse of Weakness to reduce it's melee damage, or Corruption (rank 1 is fine) for Nightfall procs if you specced.

17. If you have Dark Pact: when buffing up in raids, get your imp out of phase shift - tell your priests and paladins to buff him with spirit/mp5.

18. You can carry 3 healthstones of the same rank, if they are from 3 different warlocks, depending on how many talent points they put into Improved Healthstone. Also, you can make different ranks of healthstones for yourself in arenas, which is useful if the fight lasts a bit. Note: all healthstones share the same cooldown.

19. In arenas, summon Voidwalker first. About 12 seconds before the match starts, start summoning Felhunter/Felguard - spam Sacrifice and you should get the shield after about 5 seconds. If you have talent points in Master Summoner, it's a bit tricky - you can still get the shield, but it's really hard if you have latency above 300. Start casting about 8 seconds before the match then. This way, you should have the shield for the first 25 seconds of the match.

20. If you're low on health, use lower ranks of Life Tap.

21. If you're facing a wipe in instance, Life Tap to low hp and use Hellfire. You will kill yourself, but won't loose any durability.

22. You can cast Curse of Tongue's on mage's Water Elemental. If you're banishing the Elemental, try to Spell Lock the mage first (maybe also Fear if you're sure he won't break it instantly) so you don't get Counterspelled. You can also CoT + Siphon Life + Corruption to kill the pet.

23. If you see a warrior pop Spell Reflect, cast Curse of Recklesness. Congratulations, you're now immune to fear! You can also cast Siphon Life - it will heal basically heal you a bit due to Fel Armor bonus.

24. Hellfire triggers Prayer of Mending - if you're on full health, life tap and use Rank 1 Hellfire.

25. Recast Fel Armor on yourself before using bandages or Cannibalize.


Help me with more tips - that's what comments are for.
Did you know all this, or did I just make a totally useless post? Got any tricks for your own class, or did you find a way to beat warlocks?
What's your tip?

> 25 Awesome Warlock Tricks

Mad Alchemist's Potion
It seems this new potion has a 95% chance to proc an additional elixir effect, and it's class dependant - meaning you will get buffs depending on your class, so casters should get Elixir of Draenic Wisdom or similar, and melee classes should get Elixir of Mastery or Major Agility. Good news. But I wonder how will it work with different specs or roles - what exactly will my feral druid get?


Druid

• Growl: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its target is now increased by hit rating.
• Challenging Roar: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its targets is now increased by hit rating.

I believe spell hit rating was previously increasing the chance for these spells not to be resisted so this is good news. Tanking druids still lack serious hit rating though.


Warlock

• Unstable Affliction: The silence from this ability is now subject to diminishing returns.

What can I say... nerf to dual lock teams.

Warrior

• Challenging Shout: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its targets is now increased by hit rating.
• Taunt: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its target is now increased by hit rating.

Same as for druids, a welcome and needed change. Intimidating Shout, Demoralizing Shout and Piercing Howl are not getting changed though.


Raids & Dungeons

• The Mechanar: The Cache of the Legion can now only be looted by players who are present during some portion of a successful attempt of the Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand encounters. In addition, on Heroic difficulty Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand no longer drop Badges of Justice. Instead, the Cache of the Legion contains a Badge of Justice for each player present.

My favorite Badge of Justice farming instance is getting nerfed :((

You can read the full patch notes on worldofraids.com.

Also, I'd like to point out that Ming, considered a very good rogue (and a very nice blogger) thinks Rogues are finally the strongest class in TBC.

I got no idea how I missed this, but Wowinsider is here to point it out. Druids will be able to shift forms without exposing themselves to vulnerable human form, which is in my opinion overpowered (I got a druid, remember). While the change looks very cool and somewhat logical, I believe it is hard enough for any class to catch a druid as it is.
Also from latest patch notes:

• PvP Trinkets: Insignia of the Alliance, Insignia of the Horde, Medallion of the Alliance, and Medallion of the Horde now clear the debuff from Judgement of Justice.

So long paladin, you shall not catch my druid anymore! Can this please be nerfed?

> New PTR build: Ain't getting better

For the longest time I didn't even think I need any macros, but after learning more about them I realized they could actually help me. I won't get into /castsequence macros, because they are unnecesarry, and you shouldn't be lazy to press a few extra keys (unless you're a clicker!).
These macros are mostly for PvP, and will help you a lot in arenas and battlegrounds.


Destroying Shaman totems

/petattack [target=Tremor Totem]; [target=Grounding Totem]; [target=Earthbind Totem];

Simply change [target=Totem] if you wish to add more totems to attack. Saves a bunch of time for targeting totems and manually send your pet to attack it. Sure, you could use your wand for totems, but you can't do much else then.


Focus

/focus

This will make your current target focused, and even display an additional unit frame in for that target. You can target another player then, and use the following macro to cast on focused target without deselecting your current target:

/cast [pet:Felhunter,target=focus] Devour Magic
/cast [target=focus] Fear (Rank 6)

You can also easily modify this by yourself, for Banish or Spell Lock.


Use ranged slot

/cast [equipped:Wand] Shoot; Master Spellstone

If you have a wand equipped, it will shoot with it, and if you have a spellstone, it will use it.


Recast Drain Life/Mana

/cast [nochanneling:Drain Life] Drain Life

/cast [nochanneling:Drain Life] Drain Mana

This macro will recast Drain Mana or Drain Life when it finishes.


Easy Devour Magic

/cast Corruption(Rank 8)
/cast [pet:Felhunter, target=yourname]Devour Magic(Rank 6)
/cast [pet:Felhunter]Devour Magic(Rank 6)

This is absolutely brilliant. You can even replace Corruption on your bars with this macro - first, it will cast Corruption on your target, then, if there's any magic effects on you your pet will automatically dispel them, and if there are none, it will Devour a magic effect from your target.

Here's another version which I use for arenas:

/cast Corruption(Rank 8)
/cast [pet:Felhunter, target=teammate]Devour Magic(Rank 6)
/cast [pet:Felhunter, target=yourname]Devour Magic(Rank 6)
/cast [pet:Felhunter]Devour Magic(Rank 6)

Replace teammate and yourname with appropriate names. This will basically do the same as previous macro, but will first try to Devour Magic on your team mate. Excellent for fast dispel of Polymorph, Hammer of Justice, or similar effects from your healer.

You could use the following macro if you don't want any additional spell cast.

/cast [pet=felhunter, target=yourname] Devour Magic(Rank 6)
/cast [pet=felhunter] Devour Magic(Rank 6)

First, it Devours from you, and if there is nothing to devour then it will devour on your current target.

The following macro will Devour Magic on you, and if shift is pressed it will Devour on your current target:

/cast [modifier:shift, pet:Felhunter] Devour Magic; [pet:Felhunter, target=yourname] Devour Magic

Announce summon in raid/party

/script local C; if(GetNumRaidMembers()==0) then C = "PARTY" else C = "RAID" end
SendChatMessage("Summoning %t to << "..GetMinimapZoneText().." >>. Please assist.", C)
/cast Ritual of Summoning

If you're in a raid, it will announce in raid chat, and in party chat if you're in a party.


Use Healthstone

/stopcasting
/use Master Healthstone
/use Major Healthstone

It's my panic button! This macro will use your healthstone even when you're casting a spell - good when that warrior suddenly smacks you to 20% hp. If Master Healthstone is already used, it will use Major. Sure, they share the same cooldown, but my fights often last more than 5 minutes so often enough I use two.


Summoning with Fel Domination

/cast Fel Domination
/stopcasting
/cast Summon Voidwalker (Summon)

Feeling creative?
Learn more about macros:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/macros.html
UI & Macros Forums
Wowwiki Warlock Macros

> Useful Warlock macros

I've been browsing the forums a few days ago and noticed this topic, listing all the changes affecting Warlocks. I've checked old patch notes myself and ever found a few missing, so I decided to update this list.

Patch 1.1

• Howl of Terror: Increased the chance of breaking early.
• Fear: Increased the chance of breaking early.

Patch 1.02

• Warlocks can no longer kill players in duels. (not really a nerf, just a bugfix - but sounds funny)
  
• Fear: Players now have an increasing chance to break free of the effect, such that it is unlikely the effect will last more than 15 seconds.

Patch 1.03

• Fear - Mana cost changed to a percentage of base, which results in an increase in cost.

Patch 1.04

• Seduction (Succubus) - Is now considered a Fear effect for purposes of diminishing returns.

Patch 1.5.0

• War Stomp (Doomguard) - Now has a maximum of five targets.
• Warriors: Deathwish - Is now usable while under a Fear effect, and will also remove an existing Fear effect.

Patch 1.7.0

• Inferno - The stun effect can now be resisted.
• Druids: Druids should now be able to shapeshift back into caster form while Feared.

Patch 1.0.8

• Soul Link - Percentage of damage split with pet has been reduced (50% to 20%)
• Improved Drain Mana - Damage caused by this talent will now cause 150% damage instead of 200% damage, which is now consistent with other damage spells.
• Pets no longer break off attacks when their target is affected by Warlock Fear.

Patch 1.0.9

• Hellfire - Victims of Hellfire are now able to resist properly. Warlocks continue (as designed) to be unable to resist their own damage.
• Curse of Shadow and Curse of the Elements - These curses can no longer cause resistance to become negative.

Patch 1.10

• Death Coil - The horrify component no longer affects undead creatures (they've seen it all before.)

Patch 1.11

• Soul Link: If your pet is banished, Soul Link will stop functioning until Banish wears off. In addition, Soul Link's tooltip has been clarified to indicate it only works with your imp, voidwalker, succubus, or felhunter.
• Fear: The calculations to determine if Fear effects should break due to receiving damage have been changed. The old calculation used the base damage of the ability. The new calculation uses the final amount of damage dealt, after all modifiers. In addition, the chance for a damage over time spell to break Fear is now significantly lower. Note that Fear continues to be roughly three times as likely to break on player targets as on non-player targets.

Patch 1.12

• Howl of Terror: This spell now uses the same resistance checks as the Warlock spell Fear.

Patch 2.0.10

• Demonic Tactics now grants increased critical strike chance to you and your demon pet, instead of increased damage. (affliction nerf)

Patch 2.0.12

• Melee damage of "Felguard" has been reduced (about 40%)
• The bonus that the spells "Corruption" and "Curse of Agony" receive from bonus spell damage effects has been decreased by approximately 10%.
• Soul Fire: Bomus damage reduction from 171.4% -> 115%
• Soul Link: The damage mitigation component has been reduced. (30% -> 20% mitigation)
• Imp Firebolt bonus damage reduced by 50%
• The talent Improved Firebolt changed from 1 second max reduction to 0.5 sec.

Patch 2.1.0 22

• Chance to break crowd control from damage: The increased chance for a spell to break from taking a critical strike has been removed. Instead, all targets over level 60 have a slightly larger chance to break out of crowd-controlling effects when they take damage. (Affliction (and Demo) nerf) - In addition, fear and seduce both have "heartbeat" resists and can break at any time, whether damage has been applied or not.
• In PvP, all CC's have a maximum time of 12 seconds.

Patch 2.1.3

• Curse of the Elements and Curse of Shadow now have a duration of 2 minutes when used on PvP targets.
• Curse of Tongues now has a 12 second duration when used on PvP targets.
• Death Coil is now is now subject to diminishing returns in the Horror category. Currently, only Death Coil is in this category.
• Soulstones: Soulstones can no longer be used on targets not in your party or raid. In addition, the soulstone buff will now be removed if the target or caster leaves the party or raid.
• Spell Lock (Felhunter) duration reduced to 5 seconds (rank 1) and 6 seconds (rank 2), and cooldown reduced to 24 seconds.

Patch 2.2.0

• Banish, Seduction, Enslave Demon and Fear duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds.
• Resilience Rating: The reduction to the percent chance to get a critical strike now also reduces the damage dealt by damage over time effects by the same percentage.

Upcoming changes:

Patch 2.3.0

• Mortal Strike and other healing reduction effects (like Wound Poison) will affect Drain Life (and probably Siphon Life).
• Fear Ward will now be available to all Priests at level 20.
• Hunters are getting a debuff similar to Mortal Strike

Other classes:
Rogue:

• poisons will last for one hour now, increased from 30 minutes.
• the speed at which Deadly Throw travels is being increased significantly, so it will reach the target much faster, and the snare duration is being increased by 1 second.
  
• Shadowstep can now be used at any time, not only while stealthed. In addition, after use of Shadowstep threat caused by the next Ambush, Garrote or Backstab will be reduced by 50%. The cooldown will however be increased to 40 seconds.
• Also on the Subtlety front is a change to Dirty Deeds so that it will also be increasing damage of special attacks by 10/20% against targets that are below 35% health.
• We're also taking a look at bumping up Hemorrhage a bit, but no details yet on what that may be.
• Fleet Footed will now be a 15% speed increase instead of 8%
• In 2.3 Blind will no longer require a reagent. It will also be changed to a physical attack, will share the same diminish category as Cyclone, and diminish in PvE as well as PvP. (basically, Blind can no longer be dispelled)

Hunter:

• Arcane Shot (ranks 6+) will dispel 1 magic effect in addition to the normal damage.

Warlock buffs in 2.3:

• There is a change for Ritual of Souls which will significantly reduce the time to cast and complete it.
• Banish may no longer be cast on targets tapped by other players
  
• That's it!
  

Now, I'm not saying other classes weren't nerfed over time - they were, some even more than warlocks. But don't you dare saying how locks never get nerfed! I'm pretty sure I even missed some nerfs while looking at the patch notes, for example Insignia of the Alliance/Horde was changed a few patches back, which gave warriors and rogues another way to remove fear effects, even Death Coil. There's also dozens of undocumented changes.

I admit it, Warlocks are very strong in PvP, even overpowered vs. some classes/setups. But Rogues and Warriors don't have much problems killing Warlocks now, so they are the last ones who need buffs. Every single class is getting buffs except Warlocks, and it's been going on for the last few patches.
Shadowpriest/Lock combo was too strong in 2v2 arenas, so they got nerfed by resilience in patch 2.2. Now, locks are considered generally overpowered, especially SL/SL specs (siphon life/soul link), but is that really the case? What option do I have when fighting melee classes other than DoT + Drain Life spam? Casting Shadow Bolt with 0% pushback resist? It literally takes ages, and in the end it will get Kicked or Pummeled.
You're saying Death Coil is imbalanced - what about Cloak of Shadows; you're complaining about paladin's bubble which can now even be dispelled.

Let's see, I play arenas with a Holy paladin, +1700 bonus healing. We enter the arena, and for the sake of argument, our opponents are Holy paladin and MS (of course) warrior. My usuall routine is Curse of Tongues on pala, and damaging DoTs on warrior. I need 6-7 seconds for that, maybe more. Casting Fear on pala, get Pummeled. Cast fear again, pala dispells with trinket. All my DoTs are getting cleansed in the process. Only damage I did was with Curse of Agony on warrior. Meanwhile, my teammate is struggling to heal me with Mortal Strike debuff on me, wasting precious mana while the opposing team's paladin can pretty much go AFK. What options do I have besides Drain Life on warrior or Drain Mana on paladin? Warrior just keeps smashing me with his sword without breaking a sweat, while me and my pala try to keep me alive, and while I try doing some damage.
It's even worse vs. rogues: cheap shot, kidney shot, gouge, blind... I can't even Drain Life properly while getting all the interrupts, my teammate can't heal while being CC'ed for half of the fight. Rogue has much more interrupts, while a paladin has one bubble and one Insignia. After I place some DoTs on the rogue, he simply uses Cloak of Shadows and removes them all. If he's close do dying, he can even Vanish and go bandage somewhere.

Let's snap back to dueling a rogue for a moment. You think Fear is annoying - how about rogue's stuns/CC? Duel starts, Cheap Shot, Backstab, Backstab, Kidney Shot... I use my Insignia, run away a bit, get Crippling Poison, try casting Fear - Kick, cast Fear again, he uses Insignia. If there's some distance between us and I start casting some spell, I won't do much against his Deadly Throw and PvP/Arena gloves equip bonus (spell interrupt and 3 sec silence) unless I fakecast - even if I do, my movement speed is still reduced and I won't get far. Oh wait I have Death Coil, lets cast it. Oh snap, he used CLoS. So much about my imba Coil. Since I used all my cooldowns so far, Drain Life is the only thing keeping me alive while he's feared and my DoTs tick. That is, if I'm not already dead. If I run out of mana and have to Life Tap, I'm almost doing him a favor. Don't forget, he still didn't use Blind or Gouge.
Fighting a warrior is easy - cast Siphon Life, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Immolate, and hope your Drain Life can keep you alive while DoT's do some damage. Don't bother using Fear, warriors are almost Fear immune with all the abilities available to them. Even if you do Fear, it won't last long. Coil is pretty much the only thing that can save you; unless it gets reflected - watch out!

There was once this arena match, where I died, along with shaman from the opposing team. My pala had about 3k mana, while the other team's mage was out. He kept polymorphing my teammate and ran away from him for 4 minutes, till his mana regenerated and his cooldowns were gone (evocation, water elemental). He even bandaged from 2k hp to full. Of course, the mage won. Balance?

I'm not angry because warlocks are getting nerfed (ok I am a bit but that is not the point) - I'm frustrated because I will be running away from every noob or halfskilled rogue or warrior I bump into in battlegrounds because soon I will have no chance of defeating them, even if they have worse items than me or no skill. I'm mad because I feel like I wasted all these months getting arena points and honor to buy some good items, and now when I have 11.7k hp and 360 resilience - decent PvP gear - I can finally beat the crap out of someone. Until 2.3 comes. You will see me picking up armor scraps in Alterac Valley, killing rams and do other PvE stuff, because I'll be too afraid to run into a warrior or a rogue (or even a hunter, if they get Mortal Strike).
Time to get honor on my druid I guess.

> Warlock Nerfs

Most people tend to pick rogues as their preferred twink class. Noob class. So are hunters.
When I started playing my shaman, I didn't think about twinking him, however over time I realized how incredibly powerful they are at lower levels, especially 29 or 39 brackets.
Of course, don't expect to one shot mages or warlocks like rogues do, but do expect much more survivability and options.

You need level 40 to wear mail armor, so that is obviously not an option here. You will want as many leather items as possible, due to higher armor values, and stats that suit you. I prefer agility over strength, but it's up to you. I don't slack on intellect either - shocks and totems play an important role to beating any class you face, and healing yourself (or sometimes others) is usefull as well.
I'll be talking here about the best or second best items possible; some are gained from quests, others from instances, and some with honor points. It will take some time to get the honor required for certain items, but you will be doing battlegrounds anyway.

Head:
Enduring Cap
Leather
Stats: +16 intellect, +7 spirit; 88 armor
How to get it: don't bother faming it, it's a BOE (bind on equip) world drop so auction house is your best friend here. It will cost anywhere between 20g - 100g, depending on your realm's economy and demand.
Enchant: 100 HP (Libram of Constitution), 10-20g on auction house + you have to do a few higher level quests to get it. You can't enchant other people's items with this so try not to make your head soulbound before you enchant it.
Alternative: there are plenty of green items with +agility and/or +stamina, but I prefer this hat due to its high +intellect bonus.

Neck
River Pride Choker
Stats: +4 strength, +9 stamina
How to get it: another world drop, meaning you will have to visit the auction house again, and pay somewhere between 20 and 50 gold for this one.
Alternative: Scout's Medallion (or Sentinel's Medallion for Alliance). You will be using River Pride Choker for some time, since you will need honor for rings and trinkets first, so it's not a bad investment.

Shoulders
Watchman Pauldrons
Stats: +3 strength, +11 stamina, +4 spirit; 80 armor
How to get it: auction house again, 30-50g.
Alternative: Forest Tracker Epaulets or Mantle of Thieves. Both world drops. Forest Tracker Epaulets don't look that good so try to avoid it :p
Note: Aldor/Scryer or similar reputation gained enchants make the item soulbound, so don't expect any enchants for your shoulders.

Back
Tigerstrike Mantle
Stats: +8 agility, +7 stamina; 25 armor
How to get it: auction house; this tends to be more expensive on my realm, up to 100g
Alternative: Battle Healer's Cloak (Caretaker's Cape for Alliance), you can get it cheap (95 honor and 10 Warsong Gulch Marks) and they are pretty darn good also, +13 healing is a lot.

Chest
Raptor Hunter Tunic
Stats: +4 strength, +3 agility, +16 stamina; 117 armor
How to get it: Raptor Mastery quest chain in Stranglethorn Vale
Alternative: Beguiler Robes, BoE. I had that one because I couldn't afford the experience gained from doing quests. You can't put Burning Crusade enchants on this one though.
Enchant: Major Stats (+6 all stats), or Major Resilience (+15 resilience)

Bracers
Barbaric Bracers
Leather
Stats: +4 agility, +6 stamina, +4 spirit; 47 armor
How to get it: crafted with leatherworking; 5-10g on AH
Alternative: it's too cheap to bother with other items
Enchant: Superior Stamina (+9 stamina), Superior strength (+9 strength), Healing (+24 healing spells)

Hands
Wolfclaw Gloves
Leather
Stats: +6 agility, +6 stamina, +5 strength; 61 armor
How to get it: auction house, ranging between 50g and 100g usually
Alternative: Toughened Leather Gloves (crafted, 5-10g), Brawler Gloves (AH, 15-30g)
Enchant: Superior Agility (+15 agility) - not sure if it works on items below level 35; if not, you're stuck with +7 agility

Waist
Defilers Chain Girdle
Leather
Stats: +5 stamina, +24 attack power; 61 armor
How to get it: 175 honor and 20 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor
Alternative: Defiler's Padded Girdle

Legs
Troll's Bane Leggings
Leather
Stats: +14 agility, +4 stamina, +4 spirit; 90 armor
How to get it: Auction house, 50-100g.
Alternative: Petrospill Leggings
Enchant: make sure not to equip the item before you put Clefthide Leg Armor on them (50-70g). You need to be Level 60 to use enchant the pants, however they do not become soulbound.

Feet
Defiler's Chain Greaves
Leather
Stats: +8 agility, +8 stamina; 74 armor; equip bonus: +8% run speed
Alternative: none
Enchant: Greater Agility (+7 agility) or Greater Stamina (+7 stamina)

Rings
Legionnaire's Band (Horde) or Protector's Band (alliance)
Stats: +6 strength, +6 agility, +4 stamina
How to get it: 95 honor points and 20 WSG Marks of Honor

Thunderbrow Ring
Stats: +8 strength, +3 agility
How to get it: auction house - 20-30g
Alternative: Plains Ring (+8 stamina, +3 intellect), averaging 50g on AH

Trinkets
Insignia of the Horde / Insignia of the Alliance
Use: Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. 5 minute cooldown.
How to get it: 2805 honor points - it's hard to get on that level, but well worth it
Alternative: there is no alternative, however you can use Rune of Perfection till you get your insignia (118 honor, 30 WSG Marks of Honor)

Defiler's Talisman (Horde) / Talisman of Arathor (Alliance)
Use: Absorbs 248 to 302 physical damage. Lasts 15 sec. 3 minute cooldown.
How to get it: 175 honor and 30 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor.
Alternative: none

Weapon
Thermaplugg's Left Arm
Two hand axe; 70-106 damage, speed 2.70
Stats: +18 strength, +7 stamina
How to get it: Mekgineer Thermaplugg in Gnomeregan, 18% according to Wowhead.

Corpsemaker
Two hand axe; 88 - 132 damage, speed 3.80
Stats: +15 strength, +8 stamina
How to get it: drops from Overlord Ramtusk in Razorfen Kraul, 31% chance. It took me 5 runs to get it, but even if it took 20 I would still try.
Alternative: Cobalt Crusher, no stats but nice proc. About 50g on AH.
Enchant: Crusader

It's usefull to equip a shield and one hand weapon when carrying the flag in WSG, so you might want to get these as well:

One hand weapon
Scout's Blade (Horde) / Sentinel's Blade (Alliance)
One hand dagger
Stats: +7 agility, +3 stamina
How to get it: 316 honor points, 30 Warsong Marks of Honor
Alternative: Vendetta, Headsplitter (Headsplitter is usually much cheaper)

Shield
Vile Protector
Stats: 1051 Armor, 17 Block, +4 Strength, and an interesting equip proc!
How to get it: I hope you're horde: Compendium of the Fallen quest. Combine that with +18 stamina enchant and you're on a roll.

Marbled Buckler
Stats: +5 strength, +5 agility, +5 stamina, +5 spirit; 775 armor, 17 block
How to get it: a quest in Razorfen Kraul: A Vengeful Fate for Horde, The Crone of the Kraul for Alliance. You need to be level 29 to pick up this quest, so make sure you don't get too much xp and ding 30.
Alternative: Resplendent Guardian or Shield of Thorsen
Enchant: Greater Stamina (+7 stamina) or Resistance (+5 all resistances)


Talent points
0/20/0

Tier 1: Ancestral Knowledge vs. Shield Specialization - 5% more mana isn't much, but you won't be using shield much anyway so Ancestral knowledge is more usefull.

Tier 2: Thundering Strikes - 5% more crits means more damage and more Flurry procs. Improved Ghost Wolf - reduces Ghost Wolf Cast time to 1 second. I find it usefull when chasing players. 3 second cast time is just too much if you ask me, this shouldn't even be a talent. Guardian Totems talent makes no sense, Stoneskin is rarely used, and you don't even have Windwall and Grounding Totem at level 29.
Improved Lightning Shield: although I often use it, I rather put 3 points into something more usefull.

Tier 3: Enhancing Totems - You get Grace of Air totem at level 42, so you would be improving only strength of Earth by 16%... I don't think so.
Two handed Axes and Maces is a must have talent. Will be replaced with a different talent in 2.3, but till then you have to keep it.
Since we have to put 2 points somewhere now, I choose Anticipation rather then Improved Lightning Shield, however you may want to choose the latter.

Tier 4: We only have 5 points to spend now, and Flurry seems like the best choice. Toughness is great, but we ain't fightin' melee classes all the time.

Link to the talent build on Wowhead!


Professions

Most of the professions don't have any of the good stuff at level 29; if you need any items crafted they won't be BOP like later in the game.
Engineering on the other hand, has its uses. There are no cool devices or trinkets yet, but you will have access to Iron Grenades, which I find extremely usefull in certain situations. These grenades have a 1 minute cooldown, and take 1 second to cast (you can move while casting). Great for finishing or stopping players, or interrupting spellcasts.


Basic tips for shaman

Although Enhancement shaman are probably the easiest class to master (if there even is anything to master), here's a few tips that might help you if you're new to the class.

• If you defend a node in Arathi Basin or flag in Warsong, drop totems
• Use earthbind to slow down players if you have WSG flag (duh!)
• Use Rank 1 Earth Shock to interrupt spell casting
• Use Searing and Magma totems when fighting with more opponents
• Have Lightning Shield on you when possible. It procs on damaging spells you receive also.
• Heal others when necesarry. Especially if he's carrying a flag. Most of the time you won't smash people fast enough so heals will give you that time.
• Use bandages. Defiler's Silk Bandage and Warsong Gulch Silk Bandage are incredibly cheap. So is the food. If you can waste 1.000g and more for items and enchants, then you can afford a few bandages.
• Don't bother casting Lightning Bolt. Make Elemental shaman if you want Lightning Bolts. There are exceptions though, like players running away on low health, but your main tool is your Corpsemaker Thermaplugg's Left Arm.

It will take awhile to get all these items. Find someone (high level) who can help you run instances so you don't end up almost level 30 before you get the necessary items. Also, don't forget about xp gain for discovering new areas.
Making a twink is not cheap, you will spend more than 1000 gold for all of this. Items are not so expensive, but enchants can be. If you have a level 70 alt, grinding gold shouldn't be a problem.
Is it worth spending all that money? I'd say yes. If you're into twinking and wanna melt some faces, go for it!

*post edited to include some items changed in patch 2.3.

> Level 29 Enhancement shaman twink guide